Love That Dog

Bibliography

Creech, Sharon. Love That Dog. New York: HarperCollins, 2001. 978-0060292874

Review

"Love That Dog" is a novel written in verse that displays concrete meanings through its words. A young boy who is apprehensive towards poetry discovers its depth and that it isn't something intended only for girls. The meter in which the verse is read is through alternating stressed and unstressed syllables. It has a steady pattern that allows for the reader to flow through the novel quite rapidly.

Sound is an important part of "Love That Dog" in that the sound keeps it interesting and alive. Many words are repeated adjacent to each other such as "walk-walk-walking" (Creech, p. 69) or "wag-wag-wagging" (Creech, p. 68).Real sounds through onomatopeia are vivid and awaken the senses. Examples of tehse are seen throughout the novel with "pop-pop-popping" (Creech, p. 35) or the "taptaptaptaptap" (Creech, p. 67) of fingers on a keyboard. Interesting sounds inside of words that rhyme are revealed that create a fun sense of style, for example, "shaggy straggly paws" (Creech, p. 46) is an intriguing way to describe the dogs paws.

Figurative language brings unique ways of desribing events or feelings through the young boy. Creech personifies the spell checker as a "miracle little brain" on pg. 67 and reveals similes such as "like a squashed pea" (p. 64) and "fingers...as fast as my brain" (p. 67). Imagery through the senses is displayed on pg. 52 with the words "small" being literally smaller than the other words around it. Through this small gesture, the author truly creates an image in the reader of smaller poems and objects.

The tone fluctuates in "Love That Dog". At times it is anxious and nervous as the boy is scared of what students will think of his poetry. Later, acceptance is in the air as he beings to accept his poetry as being "good". On page 72 the tone becomes seriously and sad as the author reveals that the boy's dog was killed by a car, and the reader starts reflecting on the first poem the boy wrote in class. We realize there was meaning behind that poem about a truck, but he wasn't open to sharing about his dog being was actually killed by this truck. The story concludes with excitement and relief as Walter Dean Myers successfully visits the boy's school.

Poetry & Connection

"My Yellow Dog: by Jack" (Creech, pg. 37)

I would have each student choose an obect or something that is important to them. I would give the students several minutes to close their eyes and just think about that obejct. Then I would have students start writing sensory words about the object they chose. After students have had time to complete their descriptive words, I would now show "My Yellow Dog" on a big sheet of butcher paper. After giving the students a bit of time to look it over, discover the shape of the dog, and read the poem, we would discuss how the author used the words of their poem to create a shape.

Students would then get the opportunity to create shape poems from the words they had chosen about their object.